Austin Thomas – Nothing But NESCAC

Scrapping to Stay Alive: Week 7 Weekend Preview

Weekend Preview

With each passing week the conference standings are getting clearer and clearer. With only 3 games remaining, 3 true contenders remain. Our other 6 are left to fight for the scraps—some for regional pride, some for the sake of nothing but wins and losses, and a few in hopes of a Week 9 Miracle. This week doesn’t appear to have huge implications outside of Amherst and Tufts, but it has implications nonetheless.

Bowdoin @ Wesleyan

Neither of these teams is going to come into this game feeling very good about themselves. Bowdoin, besides the 23 obvious reasons, was served a 48-6 pasting by Trinity, while Wesleyan was downright embarrassed by their Little Three rival Amherst 33-3, on their own turf. Wesleyan obviously hasn’t had the year it was hoping for, unable to account for WR Mike Breuler ‘18’s departure, but I don’t think they’ve dipped to ‘lose to Bowdoin’ levels of bad. Their defense is strong but for Bowdoin it continues to be all about quarterback play. Austin McCrum ’21 just hasn’t been able to get anything going, most notably in last week’s 17-38, 99 yards, and 4 INT performance. You could make an argument to go back to Griff Stalcup ’21, but he’s been their best WR since switching positions. It’s a lose-lose for Bowdoin and as long as these struggles continue, their chances of winning outside of the state of Maine will be stagnant. Wesleyan shouldn’t feel confident enough in themselves to focus all of their energy on their Week 8 visit to Williams, but they can channel that energy into running up the score on Bowdoin in hopes of building some momentum. QB Mark Piccirillo ’19 will look like a better version of himself this week, and the Cardinals will roll.

Final Score: Wesleyan 38, Bowdoin 9

Colby @ Bates

The Bobcats are going to come in hot looking to lay the hammer like Mac Jackson used to, but Colby is the only team with a win in this matchup!

Finally some CBB! Love me some CBB. Two of the three rivals in Maine square off this week as they open up the annual battle for bragging rights and an extra edge in in-state recruiting. Bates is still winless, and Colby grabbed their first win last week behind the increasingly emerging arm of QB Matt Hersch ’22, who is ever so quietly beginning to pop up in the Rookie of the Year conversation. Hersch threw for 288 yards and 1 TD and 1 INT on 27-39 in their 23-21 win over Hamilton, his third straight week of 200+ yards and a score. Colby’s offensive line continues to be porous, allowing another 5 sacks last week. They need to protect Hersch to win this game. It would be easy to take the hot hand and the team that finally won a game, but despite this I’m taking Bates. The Bobcats have owned this rivalry and the CBB as a whole, as last year they became the first team since Colby in 1988-1992 to win it four years in a row. It’s a home game, and these seniors are not going to be the class that ends this streak. I’m not really sure how, but they’re going to find a way to win this game.

Final Score: Bates 27, Colby 20

Middlebury @ Trinity

Midd will look to bring pressure to whatever QB suits up for Trinity this weekend.

This could be a fun one. Middlebury has really turned it around the last few weeks, although a one point win against Bates might not show it. The Will Jernigan ’21 train has left the station, and their spread offense has clicked. Jernigan had his best collegiate game as a passer last week, going 17-26 for 266 yards 3 TDs and 1 INT. But opposing them in Hartford is Trinity and the home of the best offense in the league so far. Trinity switched it up under center last week, opting for QB Seamus Lambert instead of Jordan Vazzano ’21, and it worked as well as they could have hoped, with Lambert going 22-29 for 280 yards and 3 TDs. WRs Koby Schofer and Jonathan Girard reeled in a combined 14 of those balls for over 200 of those yards, announcing that they clearly don’t care who’s throwing it to them. I would imagine Lambert’s accuracy is what got him the starting job and it’s going to keep him there. It’s going to be tough to pick a team that allowed 34 points to Bates, and while Midd has turned things around, they’re not going to beat the Bantams in a shootout.

Final Score: Trinity 42, Middlebury 24

Williams @ Hamilton

Hamilton has been wildly inconsistent in 2018, so can they peak this weekend against Williams?

Is this a trap game for the Ephs? It’s hard to imagine losing two games in a row and still overlooking your next opponent, but after their trip to Clinton, Williams will only have arch rivals Wesleyan and Amherst remaining on the schedule, and their first Little 3 title in almost a decade is all they have left to play for, barring a miracle (I went through all the outcomes in my head and it doesn’t look good). What’s left of this defense is a far cry from the group that held Trinity to 16 points, a feat that is looking more and more impressive by the week. Star LB TJ Rothmann ’21 continues to be on the injury report with a sprained jaw, and they’ve lost DE/LB Austin Thomas ’19 for the season with a concussion. They need some pieces to come together if they want to beat Wesleyan and shock Amherst, but they still have too much talent not to take care of Hamilton, who can’t be feeling great coming off a loss to Colby. Until we know which Kenny Gray ’20 is going to show up for the Continentals, I won’t feel comfortable picking them.

Final Score: Williams 35, Hamilton 10

All in on the third hand: Week 3 Game of the Week

Week 3 Game of the Week—Trinity @ Williams: The Season Starts Now

Overview:

With all respect due towards Tufts, Wesleyan, and Middlebury, this is the first game of the season with true championship implications. While it isn’t necessarily an elimination game, it is going to be really hard to imagine the loser of this game winning its final 6 games to stay in the championship hunt. It’s safe to say this is a must win game if either side hopes to get fitted for rings when November rolls around. On paper, this should be a great game. Both teams come in at 2-0, comfortably handling both of their first two opponents. So far, they have both boasted a stellar run game and showed the potencies of their passing game while still leaving more to be desired. These two teams played each other close in a 17-9 Trinity win in Hartford, but now that we return to Williamstown, this contest should be even closer.

Key for Williams: Passing Game

8-18 for 110 yards and 0 Touchdowns. That was Bobby Maimaron’s line on Saturday vs. Colby. Definitely not what you’d expect from the reigning Rookie of the Year and top 3 quarterback in the league against any team in the league, let alone Colby. The numbers don’t tell the story for a few reasons. First, there were far too many drops from Williams’ normally sure-handed receiving corps, and it was pretty clear that the game plan was to pound the rock on the ground the whole game, which didn’t give Maimaron many chances to be aggressive in the air. Lastly, and most importantly, was the absence of Frank Stola, their star sophomore WR who was out with a concussion. They looked totally different with their top weapon out. The dynamism and versatility that has quickly become a staple of Coach Raymond’s offense was completely missing. All signs point to Stola returning for Saturday, but they’re going to need him at 100% if they want to be able to put up points in this game. Some people would point to the overwhelming success the combination of Maimaron and RB TJ Dozier ’21 have had running the ball through two games as a reason not to feel the need to rely on the passing game too heavily, but the running game is an unknown commodity until proven otherwise. There’s running the ball against Bowdoin and Colby, and there’s running the ball against Trinity. The passing game needs to show up.

Key for Trinity: Linebacker Play

As I just mentioned, Williams loves to spread everything out and challenge opposing defenses to cover them all over the field. They’ll run the ball with 5 different people, including jet sweeps to their tight end. They’ll hurry to the line and march down the field in 5 plays, or they’ll run 8 read options in a row. It’s scary to think that their offense is so young, but they’re able to run pretty much all of the plays they want to run with this personnel, a far cry from when Trinity last played in Williamstown. The Bantam linebackers are going to be asked to do a lot of different things. They’re going to need to cover short, shifty slot receivers and backs out of the backfield, as well as deal with a dual-threat QB. Now obviously, their defense is coming into this game feeling pretty good, as they have allowed a whopping 0 (zero) points in their first two games, but just like Williams’ run game, they’ll have a chance to prove how good they really are against their first real competition on Saturday. I don’t doubt that they will. Between Negron ’20, Picon-Roura ’19, and Martillotti ’19, they have plenty of talent, and—needless to say—the track record to prove it.

Williams X-Factor: LB/DE Austin Thomas ‘19

With the way Trinity has looked on offense to this point, there were a lot of directions to go here, but I’m going to go with the safe pick of the guy who has the potential to cause the most problems for opposing offenses. Thomas isn’t the best linebacker on this defense, nor is he the best defensive end, but his ability to line up as both has brought him and his team a lot of success. Though it’s only been two games, he actually leads the team in sacks with 1.5, and his 7 tackles aren’t bad for someone at his position who hasn’t played much in the second half of these blowouts. If Thomas can get to Trinity QB Jordan Vazzano ’21 a few times and assist in the mighty task of containing RB Max Chipouras ’19, it’ll make life a lot easier for the rest of the defense, because they’re going to have their hands full.

Trinity X-Factor: QB Jordan Vazzano ‘21

No reason to get cute here, this is a huge game for Vazzano. The heir to Sonny Puzzo’s throne announced his presence to the rest of the league with a 20-36, 353 yard, and 5 touchdown performance against Bates. But the week before he was just 9-26 against Colby, and 97 of his 210 passing yards came on one pass to WR Jonathan Girard ’21. We don’t really have enough of a sample size to make any bold statements about him, but it’s clear that Vazzano has the ability to put up big numbers. If worse comes to worst and he’s not ready to play with the big boys yet, they can hand it off to Chipouras 35 times and take their chances, which isn’t too bad of a strategy against most teams in the league. But against this Williams run defense, it would be huge if they could get the Jordan Vazzano that showed up against Bates.

Everything Else:

It really is close to impossible to predict this game. Both teams have played two opponents who just aren’t in their stratosphere when it comes to talent and ability, so trying to go off of either of those games for this preview seems kind of pointless. Trinity ran up some bigger numbers than Williams but that really speaks more to their depth than anything else, neither team’s first-string defense has allowed a point yet. It would be natural to side with the back-to-back champs for the sake of caution, but it isn’t that easy. This is the biggest game in Williamstown in a while, the first time in several years that they are legitimately playing a game with championship implications. I’m not going to lie and say that Farley-Lamb Field is the hardest place to play, but you would definitely feel better for the Bants if this game was in Hartford. This game is going to be really close and it’s might be as simple as who gets the ball last. I don’t feel great about it, but I know what to expect from a Trinity team in a game of this magnitude, and I think I trust their weapons on offense a little more than Williams’. The Bantam train rolls on.

Final Score: Trinity 27, Williams 20

Sophomore Slump? Williams College Season Preview

Coach Raymond and the Ephs shocked everybody in 2017, but can they improve?

Sophomore Slump? Williams College Season Preview

2017 Record: 6-3

NBN Projected 2018 Record: 5-4

Projected Starters:

Offense (8 Returners*):

QB: Bobby Maimaron ‘21*

RB: TJ Dozier ‘21

FB: Kyle Horihan ‘20

WR: Frank Stola ‘21*

WR: Justin Nelson ‘21*

WR: Rashad Morrison ‘21

TE: Justin Burke ‘21*

LT: Jeremy Subjinski ‘20*

LG: Mike Ludwig ‘20*

C: Jeff MacArthur ‘20

RG: Pat Watson ‘21*

RT: Karsten Salveson ‘19*

Defense (9 Returners*):

DL: Jameson DeMarco ‘19*

DL: Brendan Rosseau

DL: Oscar Unobskey

OLB/DE: Austin Thomas ‘19*

ILB: TJ Rothmann ‘21*

ILB: Jarrett Wesner ‘21*

OLB: Luke Apuzzi ‘20*

CB: Amhyr Barber ‘19*

CB: Des Butler ‘19*

FS: Ben Anthony ‘20*

SS: Jake Kastenhuber ‘21*

Special Teams (2 Returning):

K: Min Kyu Park ‘21*

P: TBD

KR/PR: Frank Stola ‘21*

Offensive MVP:

WR Justin Nelson ‘21

In this offense there are certainly a lot of options with this choice, but I’m going to go with the other Sophomore WR at Williams. Everyone knows about Frank Stola ’21, and for good reason, but Nelson has a chance to be the guy who takes this offense and this team to the next level. His freshman year looked like a typical freshman year—flashes of brilliance in the form of 6 catches and 125 yards, including a 76-yard TD vs. Hamilton—and games against Tufts and Amherst in which he failed to register a catch. Stola is still going to be their top big play threat but Nelson has the most unique skillset to be a target all over the field. He can catch it short and take it 76 to the house like he did against Hamilton, he can work the 10-15 yard routes that Coach Raymond loves in his offense, and he also might possess the most raw speed in the entire league. Williams’ running game looks to be their weakness offensively, but Nelson’s ability to turn short plays into big plays could make up for that.

Defensive MVP:

LB TJ Rothmann ‘21

Is 83 tackles in just 8 games good? Because that’s what TJ Rothmann’s freshman year consisted of, good for 4^th in the entire league. Despite returning 9 guys on defense, the two vacancies are up front on the line. All League NT Chris Hattar ’18 is gone and so too is Sam Gowen ’19, a fellow defensive lineman with a couple of years of starting experience. They might struggle at the line of scrimmage, especially early in the year. This team’s strength last year has been its run defense, and I expect that to continue, but it is going to be contingent upon Rothmann and the rest of the linebacking core stepping up and making a lot of tackles in the box. He has a legitimate chance to lead the NESCAC in tackles, and I expect him to be in the top 3 regardless. Ask anyone around the team and they’ll tell you that Rothmann is the most talented player on the team. He’s going to need to play like it if they want to continue to grow as an elite run-stopping unit.

Williams struggled to get anything going against Trinity in 2017.

Biggest Game: 9/29 vs. Trinity

Ironically enough, despite starting the season 4-1, it was the Ephs’ 17-9 loss in Week 3 @ Trinity that was arguably their most impressive performance. They lost a one score game on the road to the reigning undefeated league champions, and at no point did it seem like they couldn’t hang. But when the Bantams come to Williamstown this year on the last Saturday in September, it might as well be an elimination game. Both teams should be 2-0, and if you’re Williams, winning this game could mean starting the season 5-0 if they can get through Middlebury. But this league is Trinity’s until proven otherwise, regardless of who’s returning and who isn’t, and if the Ephs are the real deal this will be their chance to show it.

The Eph squad is young and has energy, but they need to bring the heat to replicate 2017.

Summary: What a difference a year makes, right? A year ago, this team was hoping to get on the board with a win in what felt like a huge game against fellow 0-8 Bowdoin. Now, it’s championship or bust in Williamstown. This team, on paper, has all the talent it needs to win the NESCAC. The offense has no shortage of weapons in 2017 ROY QB Bobby Maimaron ’21, WRs Frank Stola and Justin Nelson ’21, and swiss army knife WR Rashad Morrison ’21. The defense looks primed to be a top three unit in the league again, led by one of the best two linebacking groups in the NESCAC. It feels crazy to say but this team is returning 17 starters and yet I can’t get past the potential shortage up front on the defensive line. Whatever pairing gets rolled out there with DeMarco is going to be undersized and the weak link of a defense that relies heavily on being able to stop the run. Luckily, opening with Bowdoin and Colby should give them time to iron out the kinks. Other than that, any problem this team is going to have is going to be mental. Are the Ephs ready to take that next step and be a true championship contender, where every week is either spent dodging an upset bid or going toe-to-toe with another ring-chasing team? Last year, they were the happy-go-lucky group of upstarts who swung big and toppled a couple of giants. This year, can they be the last ones standing?

Karp’s Projected Record: 6-3

Rivalry Restored: Amherst @ Williams Game of the Week Preview

With Amherst knocking off Trinity last week in impressive fashion, a more dominant showing than the 28-20 final score would indicate, the Mammoths control their own destiny—win their final game and they are NESCAC champions. But that game is the 132nd installment of the Biggest Little Game in America, to be played out in Williamstown where the Ephs have a legitimate chance to defeat their archrival for the first time in a while. Led by a breakout freshmen class, Williams looks to have put their recent struggles in the past, and at 5-3 are certainly good enough to snap Amherst’s 6 game winning streak in the rivalry. With Amherst looking to clinch a championship, and Williams looking to send their seniors off in style and prevent any celebrating from being done on their own turf, this game is truly up for grabs.

Amherst couldn’t have been much happier with how they played last week, snapping Trinity’s 16 game win streak and leapfrogging over them to the top of the standings. While I admittedly did not give them much of a chance in last week’s preview, they did do all of the things I said they needed to do to knock off the Bants. They never let Max Chipouras ’19 get settled in for Trinity, which for him translated to 26 carries for “only” 92 yards and a touchdown. They forced Sonny Puzzo ’18 to beat them and he couldn’t, throwing for 172 yards and an interception. And Reece Foy ’18 hit James O’Regan ’20 for a 55 yard touchdown pass, which means we hit my keys to the game trifecta of:

1. Make someone other than Chipouras beat you

2. Force turnovers and short fields and

3. Hit a home run play on offense.

Not bad.

This Amherst team is legit. It may have taken 8 weeks and a lot of badgering from the Facebook comment sections to make us say that, but following their performance against Trinity they have truly proven themselves. Their lack of a superstar QB and the fact that Jack Hickey ’19 and Hasani Figueroa ’18 split carries for their dominant rushing attack mean that no one on their offense really jumps out at you, and they don’t have the depth of dangerous playmakers on defense that teams like Trinity and Tufts do, but they’re legit. They have the best offensive line in the league, the best linebacking corps in the league, and probably the best group of cover corners in the league as well.

The Amherst secondary did an excellent job on Mike Breuler ’18 against Wesleyan, and will look to do the same to Frank Stola ’21.

But they will be tested in every which way by this Williams team. QB Bobby Maimaron ’21, WR Frank Stola ’21, and the rest of the weapons on Coach Raymond’s offense can put points up in a hurry, and you just know they’ll have some tricks up their sleeve for this one. Their defensive line started out really strong, but has faded in recent weeks. If they can return to their early season form, and link up with their linebackers, who have been really good in their own right all year, this game is going to come down to the wire. This rivalry has been quite one-sided for more than half a decade now, but that’s not going to be the case on Saturday.

Amherst X-Factor: WR James O’Regan ’20

James O’ Regan ’21 (Courtesy of Amherst Athletics)

Their leading receiver in every statistical category except for the fact that he has one less reception than Bo Berluti ’19 (36), O’Regan ’20 might be the most under appreciated skill player in the NESCAC. His 18.7 yards per catch lead the league and his ability to stretch the field vertically is one of the factors that have gone into Hickey and Figueroa’s success on the ground. The weak spot in the Williams defense is their cornerbacks. They’ve combined for 1 interception, and it was a desperation heave to the back of the end zone against Hamilton. Four different Wesleyan receivers had receptions of 20+ yards, and if O’Regan can hit them for big plays like that, it’s going to be really hard for them to key in on the Amherst run game like they’re going to want to.

Fortunately for O’Regan, at 6’4″ and 200 pounds, he is going to have a huge advantage over whichever cornerback Williams chooses to throw at him. Desmond Butler ’19 is 5’11 and Amhyr Barber ’19 is 5’10. It doesn’t get any bigger at the safety position, so unless they plan on throwing a linebacker like 6’2″ 205 TJ Rothman ’21 on O’Regan in select packages and losing arguably their best run stopper, it is simply going to be an uphill battle for whoever matches up with O’Regan. Everything is set up for him to have a big day.

Williams X-Factor: DE Jameson DeMarco ’19

Jameson DeMarco ’19 (Courtesy of Williams Athletics)

There were a lot of options for this pick, as is the case when you play a really good team. But beating Amherst begins and ends with stopping the run. TJ Rothman ’21 (3rd, 79), Jarrett Wesner ’21 (7th, 65), and Luke Apuzzi ’20 (9th, 63), all rank in the top ten in the league in tackles, but as those numbers indicate, there’s no doubt that they’ll bring it on Saturday. Instead, it’s the Williams defensive front that needs to really step it up, and DeMarco is going to need to lead that unit. DeMarco leads the team in sacks with 4.5 and is second on the team in tackles for loss, but a lot of those numbers came earlier in the year. This defense made a big splash in Week 3 when they held Trinity RB Max Chipouras ’19 to just 80 yards on 28 carries, by far his most inefficient game of the season, and DeMarco was the main culprit behind that effort, going for 7 tackles, 2 of which were for a loss. Williams as a team hasn’t been tested against a traditional rushing attack really at all since they faced Trinity, being matched up against aerial threats like Middlebury’s Jared Lebowitz ’18 and Wesleyan’s Mark Picarillo ’19, or dual threat QB Ryan McDonald ’19 at Tufts.

While it’s a small sample size, just one game, it was against the league’s best running back in Chipouras, and their performance against a smash mouth back like him should give them confidence in being able to stop Hickey and Figueroa. They have other playmakers on their D-Line such as DeMarco’s counterpart DE Austin Thomas ’19, and NT Chris Hattar ’18, that will be relied on to stop Amherst’s offense, but DeMarco has done it before and he needs to do it again on Saturday.

Everything Else:

This is going to be a really fun one. The biggest Division III rivalry in the country, and one of the biggest in all of collegiate sports, two exciting, talented teams, and a championship on the line. While College Gameday isn’t going to be in Williamstown this week, this is probably the most exciting installment of this rivalry to take place in the Berkshires since Chris, Lee, and Herbie came to town in 2007. This time last year Williams was 0-7 and Amherst was 3-4. But now the two teams find themselves in much different, better places. Williams has turned 0-7 into 5-3 with some new young stars, and Amherst, after flying under the radar all season, finds itself needing to win one game to win a league title, with the chance to celebrate it on their hated nemesis’s field.

Like any football game really, all eyes are going to be on the quarterbacks. With it being both Amherst’s Ollie Eberth ’20 and Williams’ Bobby Maimaron ’21’s first experience under center in this rivalry, it will be interesting to see how they handle the nerves that come with it. But Eberth ’20 has impressed week in and week out, passing every test along the way, and Maimaron has rarely looked like a freshman this fall. I think both young quarterbacks, and both teams really, will come out and play their best games. Both teams are well coached and in the last week of the season, should be the most prepared they’ve been all year.

Bobby Maimaron ’21 gets his first taste of the rivalry following the worst game of his career. Can he recover?

This game will probably be decided by something as simple as who takes care of the ball better and commits less turnovers. There is enough playmaking on both teams that any of 8-10 guys could be the hero in what will be an otherwise pretty even game (Amherst has the better offensive line and secondary, but it’s just about a wash everywhere else). I may be biased, but if Pete was doing this preview he’d find a way for Middlebury to win the game so I’ll survive (Editor’s Note: Actually if Williams wins this game, Middlebury has a chance to tie for the league title, so Middlebury could actually be won of the winners in this one.) Bobby Maimaron ’21 and his favorite target, classmate Frank Stola ’21, will end their explosive freshman seasons in style, conjuring up the same late game magic they brought to Midd in Week 5, and the Ephs will eke one out in the 30 degree weather on Homecoming, ending a 6 game win streak and Amherst’s title hopes in style.

Final Score: Williams 31, Amherst 27